Life and Baseball Cardshttps://lonestarr.wordpress.com
This is me...Tue, 21 Jul 2015 10:46:39 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngLife and Baseball Cardshttps://lonestarr.wordpress.com
Mediocre Twitter Poetry Theatrehttps://lonestarr.wordpress.com/2015/07/21/mediocre-twitter-poetry-theatre/
https://lonestarr.wordpress.com/2015/07/21/mediocre-twitter-poetry-theatre/#commentsTue, 21 Jul 2015 10:46:30 +0000http://lonestarr.wordpress.com/?p=4576]]>I’ve done quite a few of these silly things in recent days. Figured I might as well collect them here on the ol’ blog again. I know there have been a few people who seemed to enjoy it when I’ve dropped rhymes on here in the past anyway. It’s all pretty random, just what happened to be on my mind at any given time. Enjoy.

When I look at you

I drink it in

Enjoy the view

Like it’s a sin

From your head

To your toes

A treat so sweet

Til the last drop flows

~~~~

Riding rough, the lonely trail

A jaded rōnin

With a battle-hardened soul

Following the money

Wherever it goes

A lamentable fate

For the once ideal

When all the while

She’s just looking

For a place to lay her head

That feels like home

~~~~

Both hopelessly romantic

Yet their views on love

Seem diametrically opposed

Is there common ground

For the one so intensely focused

All in, every time

And the one who wanders

Desiring to spread their love around

Can two beautiful, but disparate souls

Strike a lasting bond

~~~~

We are the last legion

Soldiers in a hopeless, endless war

For what we fought

And stood for fast & strong

Spanned centuries and star systems

Yet all that remains

Our sacrifice

Written in death & destruction

An ode to the ideals Of arrogant old fools

Whose night has finally come

~~~~

And this, baby

Is the perfect love

Between you and me

Our souls intertwined

Organic technology

Never felt so alive

In our flesh-wrapped circuitry

~~~~

I can feel it in my bones

My body is ready

Soon I will Shed this skin

Awaken the power

That lies within

So…

Let the metamorphosis begin

Until our next…

]]>https://lonestarr.wordpress.com/2015/07/21/mediocre-twitter-poetry-theatre/feed/0lonestarrFrom Conception to Completionhttps://lonestarr.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/from-conception-to-completion/
https://lonestarr.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/from-conception-to-completion/#commentsMon, 30 Mar 2015 10:50:36 +0000http://lonestarr.wordpress.com/?p=4466]]>Over the past week or so, I’ve been plugging away at this sketch of New Zealand-based future wrestling legend Evie. A short while ago I finally, mercifully finished. Not that I can actually explain how I shade with so much detail (pretty much completely self-taught), but I grabbed progress pics after each session. Just thought it might be fun to show it in various stage of completeness here on the ol’ blog. So here now is Evie, in five excruciatingly long steps.

Step One: Just a semi-rough outline with minimal detailing..

Step Two: The first section of shading. Gotta start at the top and left because I’m right-handed & don’t use a glove or anything, so it’ll get messy if I don’t..

Step Three: More shading. Top to bottom, because the lower half is about to get hella complicated..

Step Four: Roughing out the folds in the fabric. So many folds. So, sooooo many folds..

Step 5: Tightened the folds, finished shading dress, tightened up other lines, touched up shading in places, and voila… Done!

And there you have it! A complete sketch of one of the coolest and most badass wrestlers in the business, in classy mode, I guess you’d say.

That’s all for this post. Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next…

]]>https://lonestarr.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/from-conception-to-completion/feed/0lonestarrEvie1Step two..Step three..Step four..Step 5: The finished product..Gone, but not for Longhttps://lonestarr.wordpress.com/2015/03/22/gone-but-not-for-long/
https://lonestarr.wordpress.com/2015/03/22/gone-but-not-for-long/#commentsSun, 22 Mar 2015 20:27:29 +0000http://lonestarr.wordpress.com/?p=4463]]>Looks like I hit my wall even faster than last year, unless the flurry of posts to close out 2014 count. But I’ve no plans to disappear until the end of the year again. Whenever I get around to scanning stuffs again, I’ll have fresh card posts to share. In the meantime, I’ll see about getting around to more 30 Day Anime Challenge posts, and if we’re lucky/unlucky, depending on what you think of my work, maybe some poetry as well, to bridge the great divide.

I can at least say I’ve even been a little bit productive away from the blog this time out. I have a bit of fresh art and, shockingly, even a little writing to show for my slacking off here. The first several hundred words, as well as a new story bible, for Nexus Eternum are under way.

I really should have more to show for it, but you know how easily distracted I can be, even without the assistance of the internet and social media. Still though, it’s amazing how much free time opens up when you aren’t really even thinking about cards at all for a significant stretch (going on two weeks now). Once I know for sure if, and/or how badly, my checkbook is wrecked, I will get to work finishing packing up the handful of outstanding deals I have in the works, to be sent out as soon as I am able.

For the rest of today though, I have another hour or so of art in me, and a round of relatively intense cleaning to do. Maybe I can work in a little food, and maybe even a shower too, if I really put my mind to it. :P

Since I don’t really have anything interesting or useful to add at the moment (haven’t scanned anything since 2/15), but still feel like I should put something on here, I’ll toss up a few scans from January’s COMC shipment that have don’t really have anything to do with anything, and make note of a few updates to the ol’ collection.

First up, now that Robinson Cano has proven playing 82 games a year in a ballpark not designed around his particular set of skills isn’t a hindrance in the slightest, thus strongly negating the Yankee taint of one of the few Yanks I’ve ever really liked, I have added him to the Single Page Sensations page.

The only card relevant to the post. This is staying on the 2014 Canvas Collection Single Page though..

I’m also adding Kenny Lofton, because he had a stint with the Cubs and is on the all-time underrated team. He is yet another Hallworthy player that got knocked off after his first shot on the ballot. Not surprising, since it’s going to be a monumental struggle to get an even better player in Tim Raines in, but still total BS. Nearly 70 career WAR? Piss off, jabroni. Screw the Hall of Fame.

Forget scanned, I don’t even own any pageworthy Loftons yet. So here, have an Archives Frank Thomas Triumvirate..

I made quintet of new set additions to my Single Page Sensations wantlist: 1996 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallions, 2014 Topps Upper Class, as well as 2015 Topps Spring Fever, purple Toys ‘R Us parallels, and Gallery of Greats. I’m also making my need of a page apiece of base for every year of Panini Golden Age (non-baseball subjects preferred) a priority, so if you got a pack of any of them laying around, hit me up, I might be able to use some of them.

After getting my hands on a couple, my lone full set addition I’d like to get my hands on is the 40-card, Walmart Exclusive Sting insert set from 2015 Topps WWE.

Gallery of Heroes Vladdy..

Finally, the big one. Taking a page out of Gavin’s playbook, I want cards of any and all players named Caleb, as well as any variations on the name (Kaleb, Onterio McCalebb, etc). There are a surprising number of players and a couple non-sport cards bearing the name, but none who have really done anything of note at the pro level, so this shouldn’t be a hard collection to do. The reason I’m finally breaking down and doing this, without going into details, is a neurotic, therapeutic one.

The only players I know I have a card or two of are Gindl, Clay, and the aforementioned Onterio. I have no set limitations or expectations on this collection yet. I’m just going to wait and see where it goes for now.

Ending on a sexier note, with two very talented NXT gals on very different trajectories..

And that’s all I got for now. Will try to be less half-assed in the future. Thanks for stopping by!

Gonna fly now…

]]>https://lonestarr.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/collection-transactions-part-whatever-of-infinity/feed/0lonestarrFinist Prodigies Yu Darvish..Archives Frank Thomas Triumvirate..Gallery of Heroes Vladdy..Ending on a sexier note, with two very talented NXT gals on very different trajectories..One of those Nights…https://lonestarr.wordpress.com/2015/02/25/one-of-those-nights/
https://lonestarr.wordpress.com/2015/02/25/one-of-those-nights/#commentsWed, 25 Feb 2015 11:29:36 +0000http://lonestarr.wordpress.com/?p=4399]]>It’s a cold, lonely night

And I’m stuck in the past again

Lost in memories

Of what I thought could have been

Can’t stop replaying

All the things I should have said to you

Everything I felt back then

You know it all still holds true

♫

It never was

I know it never will be

No matter what I say

No matter what I wanna see

But I still lose all my senses

Rehashing our brief passing

And all the times you smiled at me

Make my lonely heart

Still want to believe

♫

And I guess life goes on

Even when you can’t let the past go

No amount of pain

Can halt time’s unending flow

I cling to fading shadows

In the dying light

Of another sleepless night

♫

I know I never had a chance

But I’m sorry I never tried

And when I’m at my weakest

It kills me deep inside

I keep chasing something

I know was never there

But when I’m missing you

The signs are everywhere

♫

And I guess life goes on

Even when you can’t let the past go

No amount of pain

Can halt time’s unending flow

I cling to fading shadows

In the dying light

of another sleepless night

♫

And I guess life goes on

Even when you can’t let the past go

No amount of pain

Can halt time’s unending flow

I cling to fading shadows

In the dying light

of another sleepless night

♫

Just another damn sleepless night…

]]>https://lonestarr.wordpress.com/2015/02/25/one-of-those-nights/feed/0lonestarrDIGITAL CAMERAMy only eBay Purchase of 2015 so Farhttps://lonestarr.wordpress.com/2015/02/23/my-only-ebay-purchase-of-2015-so-far/
https://lonestarr.wordpress.com/2015/02/23/my-only-ebay-purchase-of-2015-so-far/#commentsTue, 24 Feb 2015 04:31:36 +0000http://lonestarr.wordpress.com/?p=4395]]>That’s right, most of my money has gone to COMC this year, with a little to loose retail packs of 2015 Topps and a couple repack boxes. I’ve only bought one thing on eBay in 2015, and it wasn’t even a card. It was this:

Raven comic book backing board sketch by Jose L. Rodrigues..

I picked up this great addition to my Raven art and sketch card collection for a whole $9.99 (shipping was free, but it was nicely protected) back in January. As the caption states, this fantastic piece is drawn on the non-glossy side of a comic book backing board. Looks good at the end of my sketch card binder with the rest of my larger Raven art. :)

Random aside: I’m considering drawing something on the other blank backing board that was in with this to protect it and sending it back to the seller, lol. Maybe they can try to sell it too.

Captain Kiichi Goto of Patlabor franchise fame is my number one choice. He heads up the ragtag band of delightful weirdos that make up Section 2, Unit 2 of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police department. He’s chill to a fault, but also sneaky brilliant and playfully devious. It’d probably suck to work for him, but he’s damn great to watch.

D’aww..

My second choice is Haku from Naruto, partially because I have a severe weakness for androgyness-ness, but mostly because he was just a damn good character that got killed off way too soon. The are very, very few good characters in Naruto, and pretty much every single one of them get the shaft in one way or another. Haku was nominally an antagonist and was subsequently killed off at the climax of the very first major story arc. Freakin’ DAMMIT. >:(

After I returned my bike, I planned to just get something cheap to break the fiddy dollar bill I got in return so I could re-deposit half of it. My first four packs of 2015 Topps weren’t very good though, and the dupes were already starting to pile up. So I bit the bullet and grabbed pretty much the only other thing of interest to me that Target had: a $20, 20-pack (plus bonus) repack box that was almost completely devoid of junkwax.

Here’s the breakdown:

One 1991 Score

Three 2012 Panini Triple Play

One 2013 Bowman Platinum

Three 2014 Topps Series One 8-card blaster packs

Two 2014 Topps Series One 12-card retail packs

Four 2014 Topps Heritage

One 2014 Topps Heritage Jumbo rack pack (20 cards)

One 2014 Gypsy Queen

Three 2014 Topps Series Two 12-card retail packs

One 2014 Allen & Ginter

Bonus Item- Three loose 2014 Topps MLB Chipz

It sounds like a pretty lame bonus, but it turned out to be significantly better than expected. Take a looksie, won’t you?

Poker chips are a somehow apt metaphor for pack-bustin’..

Turns out that gold-bordered glow-in-the-dark Tulo is actually pretty rare and reasonably valuable. A run through the very few sold listings had them going for $5-20 a pop (with Jeters in $50 range), depending on the player. The only two gold borders up for the bidding at the time were a Travis d’Arnaud Gold/Glow-in-the-Dark and Jose Reyes Gold/Blue, which sold for $13.01 and the opening bid of $9.99, respectively. So this seemingly silly, innocuous bonus item was probably the hit of the box. But this little repack had more going for it than just the bonus. Much more, as you will see below.

Every once in a while, the gamble pays off..

Hit #1! Yeah, there’s more on the way.

Flagship inserts..

Seein’ red..

Great name, one of only three Cubs, Bonifacio is #’ed 1282/2014, and Keppinger is 228/2014..

Topps Series One proved much more interesting than Series Two even without the sweet Zack Wheeler relic. Better inserts, and the Target Red parallels aren’t something I see much of, even if there weren’t any huge stars. Cosart, JD, and the series dos Hoz aren’t too bad though, and everyone is at least pictured (Cosart became a Marlin at the trade deadline) on teams that should trade easy enough.

Princert, Altuve base mini, Cuddyer SP, Choice RC..

GQ was meh, as it usually is. But I never buy it anymore, so it was nice to find a pack in there. It’s a meh that tastes a whole lot better when it costs $1 than when it costs $3.

Alen Hanson Top Prospects, Gary Brown base, Richie Shaffer chrome..

Bowman Platinum is the shiny version flipside to GQ’s old-timey style pointlessness, but it has been fairly forthcoming with the marginal prospect autographs & such for me, especially in 2012. I don’t buy at full price anymore either, but it also makes for decent repack filler.

Mercifully, the only junkwax..

1991 Score wasn’t terrible, as junkwax goes. A RC of a solid player who had nice, lengthy career that included a couple monster seasons and a stint with the Cubs & a couple late career Hall-of-Famers is the best you can really hope for in a pack like this.

Heritage base..

My resemblance to Holmberg is kinda uncanny..

The repack was heavily weighted towards Heritage, which is another product I’d never normally buy on its own, but am quite happy to get in numbers in a repack. Despite my snarking to liven up the uneventful rack pack in my first post in ages over at APtbNL, that’s probably what ultimately made me decide to keep the repack while I was wandering around Target desperately trying to find something cheaper. The McCutchen is fantastic.

Heritage inserts/SPs/parallels..

Outside of the red Yadi (my only complaint about this box is all the damn Cardinals inserts!), there wasn’t really anything all that special in there. Just low level inserts & a trio of highly trade-able SPs. I’d already pulled my hits before I got to them though, so it’s cool.

From the rack pack..

Quite possibly my only keeper from the entire box came out of the rack pack, so that helped too.

Captain Marvel Jr. insert and Giancarlo base mini..

Finally, main event time. Allen & Ginter is consistently the best, most fun product Topps puts out every year (though 2014 had some legit competition for once, in the form of Finest and Stadium Club). I’ve pulled a few hits & some rarer minis & other such nonsense (sea monkey card, flower card, World’s Biggest Mini SP) over the years, but the following, while not all that extraordinary, might still be my best pull to date. Easily top-3. Feast your eyes…

Kipnis Everdeen..

This Jason Kipnis is the first auto I’ve pulled out of retail in seven years of buying Allen & Ginter packs & blasters, and it is a beaut. The funny thing about this outstanding repack box is that I had just started carrying that Prosperity Bean TJ sent in my Nerd Week prize packthat very morning. Maybe it’s legit, maybe I’m just a superstitious and cowardly lot, I dunno. I’m mostly just happy to have pulled some nice stuff out of a repack after the disaster that was January’s Greatest Chase repack/turd.

Anyway, that pretty much wraps up this post. Let me know if anything strikes your fancy, and thanks for stopping by.

Day Two wants to know the favorite anime you’ve watched so far. This… this is a toughie. There are two series that are basically 1a and 1b, and a two more that are very, very close. So I’m just gonna cop-out and speak the praises of all of them (get used to that, btw), since I’m not sure that any of them are particularly popular stateside. I watched them all in the mid-to-late aughts, back when I had digital cable. All but the one I’ll discuss first were up in the high numbers, the International Channel/AZN, Encore (mainly Encore Action), G4, and the like. Feels good, man.

Yeah!

Anyway, first up is Coyote Ragtime Show. I saw this one on the Anime Network On Demand back in the day, and as far as anime series go, it watches like a damn good popcorn flick. It’s a short, fast-paced joyride that gets from point A to point B quickly and never feels the need to stop and sniff its own farts along the way. If it helps, think of it as Outlaw Star‘s uncomplicated, fun-loving country cousin (with higher production values).

Abenobashi’s merry band of weirdos..

Moving on from analogies that are bizarre even by my standards, we have Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi. This is another shorter series. If I recall correctly, it kinda blows its own premise at the end, but it’s still a whole lotta dimension-hopping fun, looks nice, and has tons of heart (arguably the reason for the screw the rules ending). You’ll be seeing this one again on down the line.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Section 2, Division 2..

Now we’re at the ones that are 1a or 1b, depending on the day. We’ll start with the entirety of the Patlabor series. Love both the serious, darker movies and the lighter, goofier series, and you’ll be seeing it pop up with a fair amount of regularity over the course of my challenge. Basically, it is the most realistic, down-to-earth mecha anime ever made. The movies exist in their own continuity, and the plots go progressively more grandiose, as movie versions of things are wont to do, but they’re still more-or-less grounded in their version of reality. Err, maybe not Wasted XIII.

Your Vandread pilots..

Finally, we’ll close it out with mecha space opera-ish harem adventure series Vandread. Some elements of the series may call to mind (mainly old school) Battlestar Galactica. Like all of my choices, this series is arguably here more for its heart and sense of fun than its brains. Not that any of them are dumb, it’s just the the fun and heart are more important than any pretensions they might have.

To me, it’s important that one not lose their sense of humor or wonder to the inevitable cynicism being of an above average intelligence causes. I guess that’s pretty much the unifying theme of my life, and my choices in entertainment tend to reflect that.

In the wii hours of the morning on February 9th, 2015, I will officially turn 30 years old. It’s a milestone year, and nice, round numbers are typically thought of as a good time for reflection. The word reflect itself calls to mind something quiet, thoughtful, and personal. It’s really hard though, to keep it calm and cool when reflecting on the first 30 years of my life.

Whaddya mean smile? This *is* my happy face..

The barely functional walking disaster you see before you has come a long way just to get to “barely functional walking disaster”, as a few of you who have traded with me over the years can probably attest. There’s no sense of accomplishment that comes with the knowledge that you’ve done as much as you have to get to where you are when you still feel this wrecked. I might be in a nominally better place than I was in some ways, but ultimately, all I see is what hasn’t changed, what hasn’t been accomplished.

I’m still in the exact same circumstances I started in, and I still don’t know how to get out of them. I still live in the same godforsaken place. I’m still basically unemployable. I still can’t hold up my end of a conversation in real life. I’m still a fat, lazy slob. I’ve still never been in a relationship. The stability of my mental health and well-being that makes up the sum of all of the above is still a very clearly dubious thing. It’s horrible and it sucks.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not giving up. It’s just frustrating to look back and ruminate on how sideways a person’s life can go without even having a bad upbringing or the discovery of a predilection for illicit substances along the way (besides shiny cardboard, of course). Just being some combination of bipolar/borderline/aspergery can screw a person up just as bad as trauma and drug abuse. I feel a million times more guilty about it too, because it’s hard to explain when you have no specific trauma or addiction you can point out to people to explain why you are the way you are.

I’m just a fucked up weirdo who happens to be self-aware enough to realize it, but not smart, or maybe schooled is more accurate, enough to explain it or make sense of it.

It just doesn’t feel good to feel like you’ve let down every single person that’s ever cared about you and/or saw potential in you. Isn’t that a fun thing to feel whenever you can’t distract yourself hard enough? I don’t know if, if somehow I managed to accomplish all the dreams I’ve ever had, that I could ever make it up to everybody I’ve let down in my first 30 years.

The truth is, I’m just scared. Afraid to fail, afraid to succeed. I don’t trust myself. I don’t believe in myself. I feel like a giant fraud, and I’m afraid I’ll never stop seeing/feeling/living life this way.

Griffey commission..

Here’s a handy case-in-point. This is the sketch card commission I did for The Junior Junkie. He said he loved it and plans to give it a place of honor in his collection, but all I can see is how much unexpected difficulty I had with it, and the resulting mistakes I made in trying to get it looking right.

When I look back, the failure is all I see. Failed potential, wasted talent, all the dreams I’ve let fall by the wayside because I’m too scared and lazy and damaged and stupid and hopeless to even take the first step. There’s nothing about me I see that anybody could ever find worthwhile in me…

I think what might scare most in this very moment though, is that while I’m writing this at 30 years old, and I fear that I might not having anything positive to change about it, or add to it, by the time I revisit it on the morning of my 40th birthday.